Sometimes I feel paleo food blogs rely too much on sweet potatoes – but really, they are such an ancient and ubiquitous crop, and they are a s0-called superfood, and they’re pretty delicious, so I’m guessing we’ll continue to see lots of ideas for preparing sweet potatoes.

This one I stole (ahem, adapted) from Vindalho, a Portland Indian restaurant after a friend’s birthday celebration.

Easy Indian sweet potato soup:

Three medium sweet potatoes, boiled, peeled and quartered (hint, peel them after they are cooked)

Two cloves of garlic, minced

1/2 sweet onion, chopped and softly sauteed in butter or coconut oil

Salt and Pepper to taste

A dash of garam masala

One cup coconut milk

Put all of the above (cooked) ingredients into the blender in batches, and blend until smooth. Heat and serve with a bit of fresh cilantro.

Hooray! My publisher, Rainstorm Press, has been kind enough to allow me to offer my novel, A Discriminating Death, for free Kindle download for the next 2 days! If you have ever wondered what I get up to when I am not cooking, now is your chance to find out! Grab your copy now!

Now that you have the book, check out this wonderful sweet potato recipe. Remember those accordion potatoes back in the 80’s? I saw a Cooks Country episode on PBS this weekend and they made a beautiful fanned potato out of a russet potato. I wondered if I could do it with a sweet potato, and it turns out I could! It is painfully simple, but there are a couple of secrets to getting them just right. (Apparently there is a secret to changing the alignment of the photos on wordpress too, but I just can’t figure that one out!)

Ingredients:

– Sweet potatoes

-Melted butter

-Salt

-Other seasonings optional. I used salt and butter because it was what I had on hand, but I bet some fresh rosemary, some roasted walnuts, or some bacon on top would be wonderful.

Instructions:

– Wash the potatoes really well – you are going to be eating the skins

-Place potatoes on cutting board with the flattest side down. Use a couple of chopsticks or skewers on either side of the potato for a cutting guide.

-Slice the potato down to the chopsticks – almost all the way through. Make even slices along the length of the potato – mine were about 1/4 of an inch apart.

-Very important! Rinse the potato in cold water – try to get some water between the slices to remove excess starch and allow the potato to fan open beautifully.

-Place the potatoes on a microwavable plate and cook for about five to six minutes to soften.

-Place potatoes on a baking pan (cover it with aluminum foil first to decrease clean up time) and put in a 400 degree oven. Bake 30 to 45 minutes or until the potato is soft on the inside, crunchy on the top, and caramelized on the bottom.

– 1 cup cilantro, chopped (I left that out – a little cilantro goes a long way for me)

– Avocado and fresh cilantro for dressing if you choose!

Instructions:

– Preheat your oven to 375 degrees. Place chicken breasts in a large baking pan and our one TBSP of oil over them, coating well. Sprinkle your fajita seasoning over the chicken and place in the oven. Bake for about 20 to 45 minutes until cooked through. Shred the chicken with two forks, or just chop it up into small pieces.

– Meanwhile, in a large dutch oven over medium heat, melt the remaining 2 TBSP oil. Add the onions and cook until translucent – about 4-6 minutes.

– Add the garlic and peppers and sauté for about 1-2 minutes, until fragrent.

– Pour in the chicken stock and fire roasted tomatoes and bring to a boil.

– Add chicken, cilantro, and lime juice. Taste it to see what you need to add more of (I added quite a bit more fajita seasoning, but we like it spicy at my house.)

Purely Primal is one of the food blogs I read regularly. It is extra good because it is co-hosted by Coach Karen from Crossfit Fort Vancouver, and also because it has an excellent layout, is very searchable, and has a handy shopping list and printable recipes.

So, when I saw this post, I immediately decided to make this recipe. I had forgotten that Ellen had posted a carrot salad recipe already on this site! But I still decided to post this recipe review, because this carrot salad was really, really yummy. I made it for company and had to give the recipe out on the spot.

This recipe makes a lot of salad, but the leftovers were great. Here is the recipe from Purely Primal. Enjoy!

Peel and shred the carrots (a food processor with shredding disk is very helpful for this) and place in a large mixing bowl. Chop the nuts and toss them in as well. Add in the raisins, mayo, pineapple, and coconut. Stir everything very well to fully combine and coat, then add in pineapple juice a little at a time to adjust the sweetness and the creaminess of the dressing. You can store this sealed in the fridge up to about a week.

Notes: I used hazelnuts and almonds for the nuts, shredded the carrots in the food processor, and used the mayo recipe from The Clothes Make the Girl. I served it with the garlic lime chicken which Susan posted a few weeks ago.

Okay, this picture is horrid, but dinner last night was fabulous! Seriously good. In fact, I wish I had this again tonight. I made a few tweaks to the original recipe – swapped almond butter for peanut butter, coconut aminos for soy sauce, and I did double the sauce recipe because it was so, so good!

– 2 zucchinis, chopped (I didn’t have any zucchini in the fridge, so I left this out)

– 1 red bell pepper, chopped

– 1 cup snow peas or sugar snap peas

– 1 lb boneless, skinless chicken breast, cubed

– 1 ½ Tbsp almond butter

– 1 Tbsp coconut aminos

– 1 ½ tsp chili paste

– 1 Tbsp fresh lime juice

– Cilantro if you like it

– Green onion, chopped for topping

– Salt and pepper to taste

– Sriracha for topping if you like it!

Directions:

– Preheat oven to 400 – put your squash, cut side down, in a large roasting dish. I put water in the bottom of the dish, but I don’t guess you have to do that. Bake the squash till it is tender and you can use a fork to scrape the ‘spaghetti’ strands off the skin.

– In a large wok, add oil of your choice, and sauté your chicken until it is fully cooked. Season with salt and pepper.

– Add veggies and cook until tender (I held back on the snow peas and added them toward the end)

– Add the strands of cooked squash to the wok, and then pour the sauce over everything. Toss it all together for a minute or two and then plate it up. Decorate with chopped green onions, Sriracha, and cilantro if you desire.

Oh, man. These are good! I have to say that I have really missed baking since I started doing the paleo lifestyle. There is something about baking – something about mixing a variety of different ingredients together to create something totally new. It is just like alchemy for me. Making dinner just doesn’t cut it. You have a raw roast, then, you have a cooked roast. Here, you have a bit of this, a bit of that, and fifteen minutes later, you have pizza muffin perfection! Enjoy!

I found this recipe from a link that my friend, Annalisa, sent me. Check out this site – it has some great recipes!

Sooo – are these the best things you have ever put in your mouth? No, not quite. They are not the best thing since sliced bread, but they will do fine in a pinch (especially if you put a lot of paleo mayo on them). Seriously, if you are craving a sandwich, or you want to up your veggie intake (especially in the morning), then these are for you! Give them a try and see what you think.

I found this recipe posted on a Whole 30 FB page. Here is the website: